Observation Journal Assignment

Overview Your second longer-term assignment in this course is to complete an observation journal, where you will use the previous information collected in your comparison template to apply social scientific observations to help you to develop a question about the ads that a social scientist might ask. The work you do on this observation journal will directly support your work on your third course project, the final reflection, which is due later in the course. This observation journal assignment will assess the following course outcome, which you focused on throughout this theme:

 Develop questions about fundamental aspects of human behavior that inform personal assumptions, beliefs and values using evidence from the social sciences. Observation Journal Assignment

Prompt Your second course project is an observation journal. You have already gathered your advertisements and completed your comparison template to determine the social science approaches that are relevant to your ads. For this assignment you will use that information to write an observation journal that will ask you to draw conclusions from the ads and, eventually, devise a social science question that you might like to investigate. The critical elements of this assessment will be evaluated in your observation journal. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed and will be graded using the rubric at the end of this document:

I. Explain why you chose these advertisements for social scientific and personal study. For instance, what aspects of them intrigued you and made you curious?

II. Explain the assumptions and observations about human interactions and behaviors you made about the advertisements. These are some questions you might want to consider in your explanation:

a. Who do you believe the audiences for the ads might be? b. What messages do you think the ads are sending? c. What do you think the nature of the relationship is between or among the people in the ads? d. What relationship(s) do you see between or among the people and the product or service being advertised? e. How effective are the ads in influencing your own consumer decisions?

III. Identify topics in this course that are relevant to the human behaviors in your advertisements and explain how they are relevant. This is your social science evidence for your observations. For instance, what ideas and people have you studied so far that apply to your observations?

IV. Taking all of your observations and objective conclusions about human behavior in your advertisements into account, assume the role of a social scientist. What question would you ask about the advertisements that you, as a social scientist, could seek to answer? What observations and objective conclusions lead you to this question

Supporting Work and Resources The observation journal is due in learning block 4-3. Throughout this theme, there are three opportunities to work directly on different elements of the observation journal.

1. In learning block 2-4, you submitted your comparison template. You will use this to create your observation journal. 2. In learning block 4-2, you participated in a discussion using the ads you chose in support of your summative work. You can use your answers from this

discussion when completing your observation journal. 3. In learning block 4-3, you will work to finalize your observation journal and submit it to your instructor for grading. This learning block also includes an

Observation Journal Checklist that you can use to ensure you have met all the requirements of this project. You can also review the Observation Journal Exemplar for guidance in how to complete this assignment. Your instructor is available to provide guidance and answer any questions you may have as you work to finalize your observation journal. Observation Journal Assignment

Rubric Guidelines for Submission: This submission will contain your completed observation journal in Blackboard. Submit your observation journal as a Microsoft Word document. Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade Center. For more information, review these instructions.

Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (85%) Needs Improvement (55%) Not Evident (0%) Value

Chose

Meets “Proficient” criteria and details demonstrate insight into the connection between the social scientific and the personal

Explains why advertisements were chosen for social scientific and personal study

Explains why advertisements were chosen, but social scientific and personal connections are overly generalized

Does not explain why advertisements were chosen

23.75

Assumptions and Observations

Meets “Proficient” criteria and details demonstrate a mature awareness of human interactions and behaviors

Explains the assumptions and observations about human interactions and behaviors made about the ads

Explains the assumptions and observations about human interactions and behaviors made about the ads, but is overly generalized

Does not explain the assumptions and observations about human interactions and behaviors made about the ads

23.75

Topics

Meets “Proficient” criteria and connection between topics and ads shows a strong grasp of the social science evidence

Explains how topics from the course are relevant to the human behaviors in the ads

Explains how topics from the course are relevant to the human behaviors in the ads, but is overly generalized or has inaccuracies

Does not explain how topics from the course are relevant to the human behaviors in the ads

23.75

Question

Meets “Proficient” criteria and connections between question, observations, and conclusions demonstrate insight into social scientific study

Poses a question a social scientist could seek to answer, supported by observations and conclusions about human behavior in the ads

Poses a question a social scientist could seek to answer, but lacks support from observations and conclusion about human behavior in the ads or is overly generalized

Does not pose a question a social scientist could seek to answer

23.75

Articulation of Response

Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a professional and easy-to-read format

Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization

Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas

Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas

5

Total 100%